People

Weldon Cooper Center Admin Team

Larry D. Terry II

Executive Director

Larry Terry comes to the Cooper Center in 2018 from Texas, where he worked to improve the lives of citizens in the Dallas region and beyond, creating practical partnerships with elected officials, public servants and community leaders to address poverty and other community issues, including launching the Community Leadership Academy, the nation’s first peer-based citizen police officer leadership training program. His passion is research-based, outcome-driven programs and services that advance the priorities of the University of Virginia in serving the Commonwealth, forming lasting partnerships with citizens, and building vibrant, connected communities. Terry’s research, publications, teaching, and educational achievements focus on leading and managing public organizations, housing reform, and community engagement and public trust. Prior to his position at UNT Dallas, Terry served as an assistant professor of Public Administration at both Long Island University-Brooklyn and Arizona State University.

Meredith Gunter

Director of Strategy and Public Engagement

Meredith’s current role as Director of Strategy and Public Engagement builds on her prior work as Interim Director of the Cooper Center and as outreach director for the Center’s Demographics Research Group. Prior experience includes policy and special initiative development in state government, with a particular interest in international relations, and senior leadership in several institutions of higher education. Meredith’s research, teaching, and educational achievements focus on human intellectual and ethical development, gerontology, and racial/gender equity. Meredith is a devoted locavore and dog lover.

Michael Phillips

Associate Director

As Associate Director, Michael is responsible for the overall fiscal integrity of the Center including providing up-to-date financial information to all units as well as maximizing their efficiency and contributions to the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is married to his wife Jessica, a practicing attorney in Charlottesville, and they have one son, Matthew.

Bob Gibson

Communications Director

Bob Gibson is communications director and senior researcher at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. From 2008 to 2016, he was executive director of the Center's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.
Before coming to UVA in the spring of 2008, he was a political writer, columnist and editor at the Charlottesville Daily Progress for more than 30 years, where he specialized in covering local and state politics and government. He also covered police and courts.
Bob has two degrees from UVA: a bachelor’s degree in government and foreign affairs and a master’s in education. He is married to public radio producer Sarah McConnell at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. They are proud parents of three daughters.